Business rates and support grants in England

Business rates and support grants

The Government has provided £20 billion of business rates support by introducing:

• 100% business rates relief (a business rates holiday) in 2020/21 to all businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, including sports clubs, regardless of the rateable value of your business premises. Further information issued to local councils by Government is available here.*
• In addition to the rates relief, the hospitality, retail and leisure businesses with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000 (please note, this is the rateable value and not the amount paid each year for business rates) can be provided with a one-off grant of up to £25,000. If businesses are interested in receiving a one-off grant and want to check eligibility or apply then enquiries should be directed to the relevant local authority.
• Providing one-off grants of up to £10,000 to small business owners, who are currently eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (this was originally announced in the Budget as a £3,000 grant). Eligible businesses who receive Small Business Rates Relief will be contacted by their local authority, and do not need to apply to receive the grant.

*Further guidance will be issued on 20th March; the business rates relief will be dealt with by the local authorities, so businesses should not have to claim, it will be provided automatically to eligible businesses.

Business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England

Further detail on the eligibility and process for obtaining a business rates holiday during the 2020-21 tax year have been released.

Eligibility:

- Businesses based in England

- Businesses in the retail, hospitality or leisure sector such as shops, restaurants, drinking facilities, hotels, and those operating leisure activities; these include:

• Properties being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public – although golf retailers are not specifically mentioned in the examples given, there are a wide variety of retail shops noted (and the list is not meant to be exhaustive), so there is no specific reason why golf retail would be excluded.
• Properties that are being used for the provision of services to visiting members of the public including Travel Agents – the majority of golf holiday agents will operate online only, there may be those with retail outlets.
• Properties that are being used for the sale of food or drink to visiting member of the public including restaurants, takeaways, sandwich shops, coffee shops, pubs and bars.
• Properties that are being used for the provision of sport, leisure and facilities to visiting members of the public (including for viewing such activities) including sports grounds and clubs, sport and leisure facilities, gyms, wellness centres and spas, and nightclubs.
• Properties [where the non-domestic part is] being used for the provision of living accommodation as a business, such as hotels, guest houses, boarding houses, holiday homes and caravan parks/sites.

For more information from the UK Government please click here.